Student Handbook - The School of Language, Linguistics and Film

• welfare benefits and tax credits
• disability benefits
• funding for repeat periods of study
• interrupting your studies, re-sitting, withdrawing or transferring
• extenuating circumstances affecting
academic performance
• hardship funds and bursaries
• funding from trusts and charities
• housing rights
• council tax
and more
As well as helping you to find solutions to problems, the ACS can also give you information
and advice to help you to avoid problems before they happen. For example, they can help
you to plan a budget, and check that you are getting all the funding that you are entitled to.
This type of preventative advice can help you to make sure that practical and financial
problems don’t affect your academic progress.
The ACS will usually offer you advice and information about your rights and entitlements so
that you can pursue options or achieve solutions yourself, and can help you to achieve a
solution by advocating on your behalf, with your permission, perhaps by formally negotiating
with someone or by representing you at an appeal process. Usually this happens when your
rights and entitlements are based on a point of law or formal rules, and you need help to
challenge a decision or negotiate a compromise. The most common examples are: eligibility
for grants and loans, immigration, welfare benefits and council tax. The ACS can also speak
to other staff at Queen Mary on your behalf, for example, if you are having difficulty with
your fee payments or you want help with an application to one of the hardship funds at
Queen Mary. Often, they are able to tell students about options and solutions that they didn’t
know they were entitled to.
There might not be a solution to your problem. If this happens, the ACS will advise you
about the implications of your situation and options that you might need to consider.
Their advice to you will be based on your individual needs and priorities. This means that
you control the process and they will not impose decisions on you. Their role is to explain
your rights and any options and solutions available to you. You can then choose how to
proceed.
How can a Counsellor help me?
Being a student can present you with many personal and emotional challenges, and
sometimes these can have a negative impact on your experience of student life. Counselling
can help you to understand difficult experiences, feelings and behaviour. The ACS aims to
support you through your problems, focusing on what is troubling you. They can help you
put your feelings into words and make connections between different aspects of your life.
The opportunity to think and talk about your difficulties in a reflective way can not only bring
a sense of relief but can also help you to make meaningful changes to your life and
relationships, and help you to concentrate better on your studies.
What can a Counsellor help me with?
Counselling can be helpful for all kinds of difficulties whether you are dealing with something
quite serious that you’ve struggled with for many years, or something small which has
happened recently. Even if you do not know exactly what the problem is, but you are finding
life difficult to cope with, talking to a counsellor can be helpful. They can help you to work
out what is troubling you and think about what will be most beneficial.
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